After having hinted a new Witcher title was in the works a while back, CDProjekt has officially announced that the next installment in the series is currently in development.
CDPorjekt Red is holding their cards pretty close to their chest, sharing very few details about this next game beyond the above teaser image. All we know is a promise of a “New Saga” and a suspiciously cat like medallion lying in the snow. An important detail that was actually provided, is that this game will be using Epic’s Unreal Engine 5, as opposed to the developer’s own RED Engine, used for their previous titles. They will be working closely with Epic to tailor the engine to the games individual needs.
The medallion is interesting. It certainly looks very cat like. For those not familiar with The Witcher franchise, Witchers are basically monster hunters who have dedicated their lives to their trade, and are typically trained in one of a handful of different Witcher schools, each using a different animal as it’s sigil. The protagonist of the previous games, Geralt, was trained in the Wolf school, and carried with him a wolf medallion. There is indeed a Cat school in both the games, as well as the books that inspired them, although it’s worth noting the medallion here looks significantly different to the Cat medallions seen in The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, suggesting this may be a new Witcher school, or maybe just a redesign. Although if this is a Cat medallion that could have some interesting implications, as Witchers for the Cat school are fairly infamous for acting more like assassins, and less like monster hunters.
One more thing that should really be mentioned is CDProrjekt currently has no plans to make this next Witcher title exclusive to any particular storefront, despite their use of the Unreal Engine.
We are not planning on making the game exclusive to one storefront.
— The Witcher (@witchergame) March 21, 2022
Checkout the press release below for more information:
“One of the core aspects of our internal RED 2.0 Transformation is a much stronger focus on technology, and our cooperation with Epic Games is based on this principle. From the outset, we did not consider a typical licensing arrangement; both we and Epic see this as a long-term, fulfilling tech partnership. It is vital for CD PROJEKT RED to have the technical direction of our next game decided from the earliest possible phase as; in the past, we spent a lot of resources and energy to evolve and adapt REDengine with every subsequent game release. This cooperation is so exciting, because it will elevate development predictability and efficiency, while simultaneously granting us access to cutting-edge game development tools. I can’t wait for the great games we’re going to create using Unreal Engine 5!”
